Heracles roared, flinging Archer off his body.
Somersaulting gracefully midair like an agile wildcat, Archer stuck fast to the stone wall, clinging tightly as she glared at Heracles with bared fangs.
"Archer..." Mordred eyed the woman in surprise.
Without a doubt, it was Red Archer Atalanta.
But...
"She actually managed to survive until now?" Mordred raised a skeptical eyebrow at her.
Given Atalanta's middling strength, she hadn't expected her to last this long.
Had Atalanta evaded the black faction somehow? Or just not encountered them yet?
As she pondered, Atalanta let out a fierce roar at Heracles, darting rapidly around him. She loosed arrows in a relentless barrage from all directions, wind howling in their wake.
Heracles responded with a bellow of rage.
In return, an arrow shot clean through his skull.
"Hiss hiss hiss..."
Heracles regenerated back to normal again, bellowing deafeningly.
But now Atalanta's attacks barely affected him.
This development left Mordred puzzled. "Is she actually...started fighting of her own will? Why? Could she be pretending to be controlled like me? Or did she retain some survival instincts after being controlled, like Lancer?"
Seeing Kiara about to approach, Mordred called out:
"Stay back! This is no place for you!"
Kiara stopped obediently.
Mordred turned to look at Heracles, who was being harassed by Atalanta. She slowly channeled mana into her chalice.
Although unclear about the situation, they were fighting amongst themselves anyway. She naturally had to seize this chance to activate the chalice.
Ten seconds! That's all she needed. Just ten seconds!
"Crack crack crack—"
The earth split open. Countless demonic worms emerged from the cracked ground.
Mordred paid them no heed, solely focused on activating the chalice.
Ten...
Nine...
Eight...
"Raaaargh—!"
Heracles, who had been chasing Atalanta, instinctively sensed the danger. He whirled around, his savage eyes locking onto Mordred, who was hiding on the side secretly starting up the chalice.
"Roar roar roar roar roar—!!!" Bellowing furiously, he abandoned Atalanta and charged at Mordred instead.
Five...
Four...
Three...
Just three seconds left, but Heracles was already barreling towards her, roaring furiously. His ferocious aura was obvious even from a distance.
The terrifying stone axe raised high, like a meteorite streaking down to bring destruction.
Two...
No!
Too slow!
Mordred's mind screamed.
Just then, a wispy figure darted in front of her, light as a shadow. Delicate in form, yet emanating a frenzied, feral aura.
Still, the figure blocked the way, anchoring itself before Mordred.
"Crack!"
Heracles' axe smashed into the slim figure. Blood sprayed as the figure's body was flung aside.
Yet that momentary obstruction was enough. Behind the maimed body, the chalice glowed, fully restarted by Mordred.
"Whoosh—" Berserker swung again, but the massive stone axe just phased through Mordred's body, falling heavily to the ground.
"Boom!"
The impact shattered the earth with a terrifying shockwave, flipping and destroying the surrounding Chthonians. Miserable hissing wails echoed amidst the rubble.
But...
Heracles' warrior instincts took over - rather than wait for Mordred's skill to end and kill her, he turned to the other target.
Once more he raised the mighty axe, hurling it towards Kiara, who was running away so as not to drag Mordred down.
Mordred's eyes shrank at the sight.
There was no saving the situation now. Even if she deactivated her Noble Phantasm and fired an energy blast, she'd never make it in time.
Inwardly, she sighed.
The woman that man had desperately saved, she was powerless to protect her now.
If that man ever found out about this, he'd surely mock her.
The axe whistled through the air, falling like a meteorite towards Kiara.
Watching death descend, horror and the shudder of annihilation overcame her.
In this moment, Beast's mocking words returned to her mind - that the whole world was nothing but a barbaric wilderness filled with desire-driven animals. And when Kiara eventually realized this truth, she would come crying and begging to return.
Such scathing mockery.
Perhaps Kiara had long known - that as one who still retained the [Good] and held only inherited memories without truly experiencing them herself, she was but a country bumpkin. Sheltered by her father, locked away in the deep mountains, never touching the true darkness of the world.
No.
No!
I don't want to die...
—A true hero only needs this one moment!
Flickering through her mind were the final moments she had seen of Assassin from the Beast's memory.
That undaunted spirit...
As expected, Kiara couldn't emulate it.
She could never match that bravery.
But...
I don't want to die!
Kiara screamed inwardly. Her instinctive will to live surged up fiercely. The next moment, faint rays of light began radiating from her body. One after another, pale white hands - usurped from her other self - activated in response.
Endless white hands sprouted behind Kiara, swarming the stone axe like a thousand-armed bodhisattva.
In an instant—
The [Beast]'s Authority shredded the weapon, but its momentum was undiminished as it surged towards Heracles and the surrounding Chthonians.
[Ten Thousand Colored Leisure Stagnation] pierced directly through Heracles, stabbing cleanly from top to bottom.
Heracles roared skyward, but before the sound echoed, the countless hands flooded his throat with a "crack", spearing through.
The hands twisting within Heracles merged behind him, forming an endless black hole.
Unlike the Beast who unleashed it from her abdomen, Kiara had activated hers through [Ten Thousand Colored Leisure Stagnation]. Connecting with the Beast, she opened the gate to that endless abyss as well.
The hands shoved Heracles directly into the black hole. Without even a scream, his body was ground instantly to spiritrons.
[Twelve Labors] didn't even have a chance to activate before all his lives were pulverized by that abyss, almost instantly returned to the Throne.
In the moment his Saint Graph disintegrated, Heracles regained awareness.
I see...So that was it. Even erasing his own reason, he had still been manipulated in the end - forced to make the same mistakes.
"He...ra...cles..."
He turned slightly, gazing at bloodied Atalanta's motionless form.
I'm sorry, my friend.
I'm sorry...
His body disintegrated completely into spiritrons before the abyss.
The emerging Chthonians were also speared by the pale hands, dragged into smaller black holes that crushed them to pieces.
Kiara panted, cold sweat drenching her head.
So terrifying...
And yet this feeling...
"You did damn well," Mordred chuckled, walking over to pat her shoulder. "Not bad at all."
"N-no, I..." Kiara stammered. "I dragged you down just now...Miss Unknown."
"There you go again," Mordred frowned with displeasure.
Kiara blinked blankly. "But I didn't say 'I'm sorry'?"
"Same difference!" Mordred pursed her lips. "You shouldn't be saying sorry or apologizing. You should be saying 'I can do this,' or 'I will do even better next time.' Don't forget, you're a Beast! Something that is feared even by us Heroic Spirits."
Kiara said timidly, "But I don't want others to fear me...I don't want to become that other me, either."
"Then you need to get stronger. And confidently decide what kind of person you will be."
"I see... Got it!" she nodded firmly.
Mordred turned her head slightly, frowning as she gazed at the slim, dissipating figure. She walked over to the women.
The huntress quietly returned Mordred's gaze, savagery still visible in her eyes with a violent aura still surrounding her body. Yet oddly enough, she no longer gave off an aura of danger.
Mordred understood clearly that although this woman, this Heroic Spirit, had been controlled against her will, she still retained her core characteristics as a Heroic Spirit.
"What is your True Name—?" Mordred asked.
The huntress raised her palm, seeming to want to touch Mordred's face. Yet also seemingly afraid that she might unintentionally hurt her, she hesitated and drew her hand back.
Staring into Mordred's eyes, an incomprehensible yet relieved smile crossed the huntress's face.
"Meow~"
Softly, faintly, she disappeared - vanishing like melting snow.
"I see..." Mordred fell silent.
She now knew why this Heroic Spirit had protected and followed her, even fighting Berserker on her behalf.
"So that's why... A Heroic Spirit who protects and dotes on children?"
Mordred laughed softly. "To actually treat me...as a child..."
"What a...foolish Heroic Spirit," she murmured.
She grasped at the dissipating spiritrons, watching them slip through her fingers like vanishing snowflakes.